European shares lifted by firmer utility, mining stocks

(ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK
stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon - see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets
for site in development. See the bottom of the report)

* Stock markets rise after weaker-than-forecast U.S jobs
data

* STOXX 600 index up around 1 percent

* Utility and mining stocks outperform

* But SBM Offshore plunges

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

LONDON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Friday
with utility and mining stocks outperforming, as
weaker-than-expected U.S jobs data led investors to pare back
bets on an imminent U.S. interest rate hike.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index index was up 1.1
percent in late session trading, with the region's stock markets
moving higher after data on Friday showed that U.S. employment
growth slowed more than expected in August.

That in turn meant traders were now pricing in about even
odds for a December rate hike in the United States, with little
chance of a rise before then. Before the report, traders saw
better than even odds of a December rate increase.
Continuación...